'quality is not an act, it is a habit' Aristotle

Communication

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A friend of mine sent me an interesting example this week of how one a piece of simple creativity can turn a crisis into an opportunity.

This one is courtesy of the Food Network who sent their subscribers the following email on Wednesday January 16th, 2013:

116 Homemade Burger

Say ‘neigh’ to shop-bought burgers and make your own at home. Whether beef, chicken or pork takes your fancy, layer between crisp salad, gooey cheese and a lightly-toasted bun

See our 116 burger recipes…

Out of context this won’t really be appreciated however if I tell you that this was the same week as it emerged that horse meat and horse DNA had been found in frozen beef burgers stocked by a number of leading supermarket chains, you will then appreciate the timing of this little nugget.

Like this:

I haven’t written for quite a while but a recent situation with work has provided me with a lesson I want to share.

This week I made a mistake at work with some data. Not a big mistake, but enough that an email was sent to around 300 of our membership who shouldn’t have received that particular email.

If that had happened to you, what would you have done? Hid in a corner and hoped no-one noticed? Denied all knowledge and blamed someone else?

This very week I had an email of apology from a well-known supermarket chain who had sent an incorrect email to me, and we chose to take a similar approach by holding our hands up, apologising and taking the opportunity to engage with those individuals in a more personal way.

And the response?

Well really good. Of the 300 emailed, 20% had already responded back within five hours to thank us and provide their latest personal information and some even offered ways they may wish to re-engage and give back to the community.

This is the response we had hoped for, and somewhat expected, but the strength of the response has still taken us somewhat by surprise.

And so what have we learnt from this?

Mistakes happen: No matter how how robust your processes or good your people, mistakes will always happen. And especially the more complicated the work you are doing

Don’t be afraid to say sorry: Our natural reaction to making a mistake might be to want to shift the blame or pretend it hasn’t happened, especially if the consequences of holding our hands up may be unclear or unfavourable. We need to fight our natural tendencies as saying sorry, aside from just being the ‘right thing to do’ is important for our businesses and in creating communities. Just think, what would you want someone to do to you?

Be honest and transparent: Following on from saying sorry, it is important that our communications are open, honest and transparent. How else will our communities trust us? And it’s not just about gaining trust, honesty unities communities and teams. Margaret Heffernan talks about this in her article “Make the most of your mistake“

Find ways to use your mistakes for good: Where appropriate, look for opportunities to use your mistakes for good, whether for your business, staff or wider society. If you can, take the opportunity to use your communications to engage your community further

Learn from them: Even if you can make something good from your mistakes, it doesn’t mean that you want to make the mistake again and so learn from them, fix the processes and work out ways to make sure they don’t happen again.